{"id":278,"date":"2025-12-15T11:55:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/mark-holcroft\/?p=278"},"modified":"2026-01-14T15:27:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:27:24","slug":"my-phd-project-stochastic-optimisation-approaches-to-the-storage-location-assignment-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/stor-i-student-sites\/mark-holcroft\/2025\/12\/15\/my-phd-project-stochastic-optimisation-approaches-to-the-storage-location-assignment-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"My PhD Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The title of my PhD is “Stochastic Programming Approaches to the Storage Location Assignment Problem”. The problem is application driven, aiming to create models for optimising how products are placed and picked in large, industrial-sized warehouses. My project is specifically researching how stochastic programming can be used to this end, with consideration of randomness from unknown orders arriving at the warehouse. My project is a joint collaboration between ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ’s STOR-i CDT and Tesco. My academic supervisors are Dr Jamie Fairbrother and Dr Luke Rhodes-Leader, and my industrial supervisors are Dr Edwin Reynolds, Dr Ben Black, Dr Fotios Katsigiannis and Dr Thomas Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the problem we are considering, we have a single-block warehouse like that shown above. The warehouse is divided into parallel aisles, each of which are split into bays. We have a front cross-aisle and a back cross-aisle, and pickers (staff responsible for picking products from shelves) are permitted to travel bidirectionally through the aisles and cross-aisles. This layout is the most widely-studied of warehouse layouts, and is reminiscent of many warehouses used in practice by retail companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of the problem is to minimise the distance travelled by pickers, and it can naturally be broken down into three distinct stages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n